Music brings N-word to a crossroads

Rap artists like Drake, JayZ and Kanye West repeatedly use "nigga" in their music to create a camaraderie among African-Americans.

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Posted May. 5, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 5, 2014 at 6:25 AM

Posted May. 5, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 5, 2014 at 6:25 AM

» Social News

Rap artists like Drake, JayZ and Kanye West repeatedly use "nigga" in their music to create a camaraderie among African-Americans.

Supporters argue that when the word is used this way, it's an acceptable term of endearment that only African-Americans get to call each other.

But this word is derived from "nigger," one of the ugliest and most offensive words there is, which is why prominent African-Americans like Bill Cosby rail against use of the term.

The word is so wretched that most people won't use it in public, instead opting to write it as n***er or to say it as "the N-word" — even when people are explicitly critiquing the word, as this column does here.

Though originally a neutral Latin term (niger) meaning "dark," by the 1800s it had become an entrenched derogatory term.

That's why the African American Registry, a nonprofit organization for race education, states that no other American epithet has been so "purposely cruel."

Thankfully, uses of the word have declined since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Except rap is bringing it back, in modified form.

So here we are at a crossroads.

Do we accept this word into our common vocabulary as legitimate social criticism, the way rap stars use it to criticize the mistreatment of African-Americans? Or do we eliminate it because of its venomous history?

Given that its original meaning (dark) wasn't racist, can the word be rehabilitated? Can there be room for it in 100 years?

Perhaps. If three conditions are met:

One is for the primary meaning to revert to "dark-like," but without any derogatory racial overtones.

Two is for enough time to pass that African slavery and the racial discrimination following the Emancipation Proclamation can become distant memories (though never completely forgotten).

Three is for the increasingly mixed-race demographic of our population to bring us closer to a raceless society — a trend already well underway.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, people identifying themselves as multiracial increased by 32 percent compared to the 2000 Census, while those identifying themselves as a single race increased by 9.2 percent.

In the meantime, what do we do with the N word?

Unfortunately, there's no consensus, or most people wouldn't be so tentative about whether to avoid it, whether to use it only among trusted friends, or whether to sing it under the cover of someone else's music lyrics.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it.

Rob McKenzie is a professor of communication studies at East Stroudsburg University.